PERRY, Fla. — North Carolina officials pledged to get more water and other supplies to flood-stricken areas by Monday after Hurricane Helene left a trail of destruction across the U.S. Southeast and the death toll from the storm rose to nearly 100.
At least 91 people across several states were killed. A North Carolina county that includes the mountain city of Asheville reported 30 people killed.
Gov. Roy Cooper predicted the toll would rise as rescuers and other emergency workers reached areas isolated by collapsed roads, failing infrastructure and widespread flooding.
Supplies were being airlifted to the region around the isolated city of Asheville. Buncombe County Manager Avril Pinder pledged that she would have food and water to the city by Monday.
“We hear you. We need food and we need water,” Pinder said on a Sunday call with reporters. “My staff has been making every request possible to the state for support and we’ve been working with every single organization that has reached out. What I promise you is that we are very close.”
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A group from St. Augustine, Fla. that arrived to help storm victims, who did not want to give their names, walk to the damaged First Baptist Church to pray in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, on Sunday in Horseshoe Beach, Fla.
Officials warned that rebuilding from the widespread loss of homes and property would be lengthy and difficult. The storm upended life throughout the Southeast. Deaths also were reported in Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Virginia.
Cooper implored residents in western North Carolina to avoid travel, both for their own safety and to keep roads clear for emergency vehicles. More than 50 search teams spread throughout the region in search of stranded people.
One rescue effort involved saving 41 people north of Asheville. Another mission focused on saving a single infant. The teams found people through both 911 calls and social media messages, North Carolina National Guard Adjutant General Todd Hunt said.
President Joe Biden described the impact of the storm as “stunning” and said he would visit the area this week as long as it does not disrupt rescues or recovery work. In a brief exchange with reporters, he said the administration is giving states “everything we have” to help with their response to the storm.
Hurricane Helene roared ashore late Thursday in Florida’s Big Bend region as a Category 4 hurricane with 140 mph (225 kph) winds. A weakened Helene quickly moved through Georgia, then soaked the Carolinas and Tennessee with torrential rains that flooded creeks and rivers and strained dams.
There have been hundreds of water rescues, including in rural Unicoi County in East Tennessee, where dozens of patients and staff were plucked by helicopter from a hospital rooftop Friday.
More than 2 million homeowners and other utility customers were still without power Sunday night. South Carolina had the most outages and Gov. Henry McMaster asked for patience as crews dealt with widespread snapped power poles.
“We want people to remain calm. Help is on the way, it is just going to take time,” McMaster told reporters outside the airport in Aiken County.
Begging for help in North Carolina as that help is slow to arrive
The storm unleashed the worst flooding in a century in North Carolina. One community, Spruce Pine, was doused with over 2 feet (61 centimeters) of rain from Tuesday through Saturday.
Jessica Drye Turner in Texas had begged for someone to rescue her family members stranded on their rooftop in Asheville amid rising floodwaters. “They are watching 18-wheelers and cars floating by,” Turner wrote in an urgent Facebook post on Friday.
But in a follow-up message Saturday, Turner said help had not arrived in time to save her parents, both in their 70s, and her 6-year-old nephew. The roof collapsed and the three drowned.
“I cannot convey in words the sorrow, heartbreak and devastation my sisters and I are going through,” she wrote.
The state was sending water supplies and other items toward Buncombe County and Asheville, but mudslides blocking Interstate 40 and other highways prevented supplies from making it. The county’s own water supplies were on the other side of the Swannanoa River, away from where most of the 270,000 people in Buncombe County live, officials said.
Law enforcement was making plans to send officers to places that still had water, food or gas because of reports of arguments and threats of violence, the county sheriff said.
FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell toured south Georgia on Sunday and planned to be in North Carolina Monday.
“It’s still very much an active search and rescue mission” in western North Carolina, Criswell said. “And we know that there’s many communities that are cut off just because of the geography” of the mountains, where damage to roads and bridges have cut off certain areas.
Biden on Saturday pledged federal government help for Helene's “overwhelming” devastation. He also approved a disaster declaration for North Carolina, making federal funding available for affected individuals.
Storm-battered Florida digs out, residents gather for church
In Florida's Big Bend, some lost nearly everything they own. With sanctuaries still darkened as of Sunday morning, some churches canceled regular services while others like Faith Baptist Church in Perry opted to worship outside.
Standing water and tree debris still covers the grounds of Faith Baptist Church. The church called on parishioners to come “pray for our community” in a message posted to the congregation’s Facebook page.
“We have power. We don’t have electricity,” Immaculate Conception Catholic Church parishioner Marie Ruttinger said. “Our God has power. That’s for sure.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said Saturday that it looked “like a bomb went off” after viewing splintered homes and debris-covered highways from the air.
In eastern Georgia near the border with South Carolina, officials notified Augusta residents Sunday morning that water service would be shut off for 24 to 48 hours in the city and surrounding Richmond County.
A news release said trash and debris from the storm “blocked our ability to pump water.” Officials were distributing bottled water.
With at least 25 killed in South Carolina, Helene was the deadliest tropical cyclone for the state since Hurricane Hugo made landfall north of Charleston in 1989, killing 35 people.
Moody’s Analytics said it expects $15 billion to $26 billion in property damage.
Climate change has exacerbated conditions that allow such storms to thrive, rapidly intensifying in warming waters and turning into powerful cyclones sometimes within hours.
A group from St. Augustine, Fla., that arrived to help storm victims, who did not want to give their name, pray outside the damaged First Baptist Church in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, on Sunday in Horseshoe Beach, Fla.
New tropical depression in Atlantic could become strong hurricane, forecasters say
A new tropical depression in the eastern Atlantic Ocean could become a “formidable hurricane” later this week, the National Hurricane Center said Sunday. The depression had sustained 35 mph (55 kph) winds and was located about 630 miles (1,015 kilometers) west-southwest of the Cabo Verde Islands, the center said. It could become a hurricane by Wednesday.
Photos: Hurricane Helene inundates the southeastern US
Thomas Chaves, left, and Vinny Almeida walk through floodwaters Friday from Hurricane Helene in an attempt to reach Chaves's mother's house in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. Authorities were trying to get a handle on the storm's extreme swath of destruction, which stretched across Florida, Georgia and much of the southeastern U.S., leaving at least 30 people dead in four states and millions without power.
Workers clear debris Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key, Fla. Tangled piles of nail-spiked lumber and displaced boats littered the streets. A house lay crushed under a fern-covered oak tree toppled by the winds.
This GOES-16 GeoColor satellite image taken at 5:46 p.m. EDT and provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) shows Hurricane Helene in the Gulf of Mexico moving towards Florida, Thursday, Sept. 26 2024. (NOAA via AP) The Category 4 hurricane had maximum sustained winds of 140 mph (225 kph) and made landfall late Thursday where Florida's Panhandle and peninsula meet, a rural region home to fishing villages and vacation hideaways.
Residents are rescued from floodwaters Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla. Residents waded or paddled through ruddy floodwaters, hoping to find their loved ones safe, and rescue crews used fan boats to evacuate stranded people in bathrobes or wrapped in blankets.
A Citrus County firefighter carries 11-year-old Michael Cribbins while conducting rescues in floodwaters Friday in Crystal River, Fla., after Hurricane Helene.
Halle Brooks kayaks Friday down a street flooded by Hurricane Helene in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. The damage reached much farther. Hospitals in southern Georgia were left without electricity as officials warned of severe damage to the power grid, and streets in Atlanta plunged into reddish-brown water. In Tennessee, dozens of people were rescued from a hospital roof, and authorities ordered the evacuation of downtown Newport, a city of about 7,000 residents, due to the “catastrophic failure” of a dam.
Faith Cotto comforts her mother, Nancy, as they look at the remnants of their home Friday in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. The house burned during flooding from Hurricane Helene.
A man and his dog are rescued Thursday after his sailboat became disabled during Hurricane Helene approximately 25 miles off Sanibel Island, Fla.
A boat rests on a street Friday after being relocated during flooding caused by Hurricane Helene in Hudson, Fla. It was the eighth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, which began June 1. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted an above-average season this year because of record-warm ocean temperatures.
A patron looks at flooding Friday from Hurricane Helene in the Paces neighborhood of Atlanta.
A partially submerged vehicle sits in floodwater Friday after Hurricane Helene passed in Atlanta.
An American flag sits in floodwaters Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla. Floodwaters inundated cars and buildings, and the winds ripped off the roofs of businesses, houses and churches.
Bradley Tennant looks through his house Friday flooded with water from Hurricane Helene in the Shore Acres neighborhood of St. Petersburg, Fla.
The business Chez What is seen Friday after Hurricane Helene moved through Valdosta, Ga.
Workers remove debris Friday in Cedar Key, Fla., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Nate Martir, a law enforcement officer from the Florida Fish Wildlife and Conservation Commission, holds an American flag that was lying on the ground amid debris, while patrolling Friday in a high-water-capable swamp buggy in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key, Fla.
Clarissa Lucky gives a tour of her home Friday that flooded from Hurricane Helene near DeSoto Park, Fla., in Tampa.
A damaged 100-year-old home is seen Friday in Valdosta, Ga., after an oak tree landed on it during Hurricane Helene.
Jamir Lewis wades through floodwaters Friday with his daughters, Nylah and Aria, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla.
People and pets are rescued from flooded neighborhoods Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla.
An airboat transports residents rescued from floodwaters Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Crystal River, Fla.
A person walks past building foundations along the water Friday in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Cedar Key, Fla.
Jennifer Lange, center, walks amid the destruction in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
John Taylor puts up an American flag on his destroyed property in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Chae Tillman fills fuel containers Saturday at a gas station in Adell, Ga., in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene.
Dennis Johnson cleans out debris from his mother-in-law's heavily damaged home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, in Horseshoe Beach, Fla., Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
Dustin Bentley, center kisses his wife Jennifer Bentley, left, after retrieving family photos from their flood damaged home as his mother Janet Sams looks on Saturday, Sept. 28, 2024, in Newport, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
